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Paperback Details
  • 05/2024
  • 979-8-9886815-1-9
  • 272 pages
  • $16.99
Kirk Ward Robinson
Author
Ridley Speaks: A Novel
In a sun baked southern town near the famous Appalachian Trail, poverty and drug abuse have taken hold, and an eighteen-year-old girl sets out on a single-minded mission to save her future. In Book Three of The Speaks Saga, Blaize’s eldest daughter, Ridley, has finally come of age and can now escape her bleak life, desperate to leave bitter memories behind but she is haunted by them, recounting the trials and struggles of the Speaks family during its darkest period. When she is stranded in Nashville, Ridley must use her wits and her cunning to foil human traffickers who want to groom and exploit her. With the grit and determination born of her upbringing in Appalachia, Ridley battles her way through Music City’s most hallowed streets in a deadly pursuit of vengeance, never losing sight of her ultimate goal, while drawing courage from the very person she’d come to hate.
Plot/Idea: 9 out of 10
Originality: 8 out of 10
Prose: 8 out of 10
Character/Execution: 9 out of 10
Overall: 8.50 out of 10

Assessment:

Plot/Idea: Ridley is a compelling character to follow, and Robinson skillfully constructs her hardships and triumphs here. In her drive to make something more of her life than her humble beginnings, Ridley must face several daunting experiences, but her voice strongly emerges from them all—powerful, resolute, and convincing. 

Prose: Robinson's prose engages readers immensely, sharpened by the song bits—Ridley's own composition—that add emotional depth. 

Originality: Though a girl down on her luck may not feel original, readers will be transfixed by Ridley's unshakable personality, surrounded by a truly unique cast.

Character/Execution: Robinson draws strong emotions around this whirlwind of a main character, making characters desperately wish for Ridley's success in a tempestuous, dangerous world. 

Blurb: A compelling adventure built around a gripping young woman whose determination is unstoppable.

Date Submitted: August 08, 2024

Reviews
Born “in the wilderness, under a tree during a howling storm,” Ridley Speaks, daughter of troubled mother Blaize Speaks, grew up in a household shrouded with poverty, drugs, and despondency, in a small town teetering on the edge of the famous Appalachian Trail. Ridley escapes as soon as she turns 18, armed with only meager belongings and her Martin Junior, bound for “the farthest place [she] can get to from here.” She finds her way to Nashville—and starts dabbling in music—but quickly gets caught up in the murky underbelly of the big city, putting her plans, and her life, on the line.

Robinson’s third in his Speaks Saga (after Blaize Speaks) wades through heavy material, confronting human trafficking, sexual assault, and more, but the story is buoyed by Ridley’s disarming narration. Fierce, independent, and talented, she’s a refreshing breeze in an otherwise suffocating world, desperately trying to escape her mother’s shadow—only to discover they’re more alike than Ridley cares to admit. Ridley’s inner tumult—and encounters with the darkness of the larger world—is lyrically described with effortless ease, the present punctuated by flashbacks of the past that sometimes explain, and other times deepen, the reader’s understanding of her life.

What hooks from the start is Ridley’s unbending character, besieged by appalling events but still resolute in her determination to make something of herself beyond her one street town, an “aberration… [against the] undulating forest green” of the surrounding mountains. Some scenes—Ridley’s retribution in particular—induce incredulity, but the narrative voice remains steady, realistic, and imminently believable, eclipsed only by Robinson’s motley crew of ragtag hikers (one of which, Cockadoodle, who teaches Ridley her first Blues shuffle on the guitar), old Black men singing the blues, and one very sarcastic undertaker. For lovers of on-the-road adventures seeded in the darker underworld of life on the streets, this is a must read.

Takeaway: On-the-road adventure of a young hopeful against the seedy big city.

Comparable Titles: Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Formats
Paperback Details
  • 05/2024
  • 979-8-9886815-1-9
  • 272 pages
  • $16.99
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